World in one city

In July
The Observer revealed a remarkable project by two London comics to see if they could find someone living in the capital from each of the 192 nations in the world. Now, with just days to go to their one-year deadline, Alex Horne and Owen Powell have just nine more countries to find

World in one city

In July
The Observer revealed a remarkable project by two London comics to see if they could find someone living in the capital from each of the 192 nations in the world. Now, with just days to go to their one-year deadline, Alex Horne and Owen Powell have just nine more countries to find

Alex Horne and Owen Powell started their quest on a rainy 24 October last year in London, where they found Carl Sissons from the Philippines manning a motion simulator in the basement of the Trocadero Centre. By July they had reached 112 people, each of whom they profile on their World in One City website.

Now, with just days to go to their one-year deadline on Wednesday, Horne and Powell have just nine more countries to find: the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niger, Palau, Qatar, Tuvalu, Guinea-Bissau and Gabon. The last two they have leads for, but Nauru only has a population of 10,000 'and going down'. Another rule the two friends set was that they cannot hang around outside embassies to catch their prey, although they might succumb to ringing some in the final hours, admitted Horne.

The two friends hope to write a book and have a party for all 192 'countries'. 'That's the ultimate aim, to get them all in one place,' said Horne. 'So it's definitely not the end on Wednesday.'